St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-08-19
THE CHATsWORTH HORROR.
The Coroner's Jury Makes an EN-
pIOye the ScapegOat.

DIOfC TIC
CHATswoRTH, ILL.,, Aug. 1S.-The
cOroner'S jury agreed on verdict this
morning which holds Timothy COughlin,
foreman of section II, to the grand jury,
and negatively exOnerates the company.
The management is not censured for
running a double-header, for lax syS-
TEN of track inspection or for anything
else. The three or four friends of the
road on the jury had better staying
qualities than the two or three of those
who wanted to fix portion of the blame
Oh the management. Timothy Cough
lin. the section foreman, was promptly
arrested and will be taken to Pontiac,
the county seat of Livingston county,
at once. He says he cannot give bail
and will have to go to Jail. He insists
that the verdict is unjust; that he went
over his entire section as ordered, and
that no fires were built as near the
bridge AS Heald and Taggert testified.
The Jury made out separate verdictS
for each of the victims. Mrs. DR.. Duck
etts is the first name on the list. The
following is the verdict of the jury on
her death.
State of Illinois, Livingston county, S.:
In the matter of the inquisition on the body
of Mrs DR.. Duckett, of Forest, H., deceased,
held at ChatswOrth on the 11th day of Au-
gust, A ID. 1887: We, the undersigned,
Jurors, sworn to inquire into the cause of the
death of Mrs. DR.. Duckett, late OF Forest, Ill,
on oath do find that she came to her death
from injuries received in the wrecking of the
Niagara Falls excursion train on the Toledo.
Peoria d Western railway, on which she was
q passenger, at a bridge two and one-half
miles east of Chatsworth, about II O'Clock
midnight, Wednesday, Aug. 10, 1887. We
find that the wrecking of said train, which
totally demolished eight coaches. one bag
gage car and one engine, and either killed or
wounded most of the occupants of said
coaches. was caused by SAID bridge having
been burned before the train struck it. We
think from the evidence that the bridge was
burned from fires left burning, which had
been set as late as o'clock that
afternoon by section men, as close as sixteen
feet on both the east and west sides of the
track We further find that the foreman of
the section, Timothy COughlin, disobeyed
positive orders from his superintendent the
last thing ON Wednesday, and we find that he
did not go over the west two and one-half
miles at all on Wednesday as instructed, and
that said foreman was guilty of gross and
criminal carelessness in leaving fires burning
along the track in such dry season with
sucha strong wind blowing. We recommend
that he be held for examination by the grand
jury; and, further, it is the opinion of the
jury that the leaving of the track without be-
ing patrolled for six hours before the passage
of the excursion and the setting of fires by
the section men on such dry and windy day
as the 10th of August, 1887, were acts which
deserve severe criticism.
DR.. H. S. N. Bards, of Fairbury, ILL.,,
who arrived here at noon, brings the in
formation of the death at O'Clock this
morning of Elliott Waters, of the Peoria
Watch company, who was on his way to
Dalton, n. Y. Wheu taken from here
to Fairbury, he said to your correspond
ent. that he was on his way to visit his
parents, and would get to them yet. He
had hole in his thigh as big as mans
wrist, together with internal injuries,
but he bore up so bravely that the phySi-
clans dubbed him the hero. He did
well until last evening, when blood
poisoning and failure of the heart
superyened and he gradually sank. His
body passed through here at noon ex-
nrnSSed to Dalfnn N Y